


In The Name Of Science

by afteriwake



Series: In So Few Words [73]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Babysitter Lestrade, Babysitting, Cute Kids, Established Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper, Family Fluff, Fluff and Humor, For Science!, Gen, Lestrade Feels Guilty, Messy, POV Molly Hooper, Science Experiments, Trying Not To Laugh, Watermelons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-11
Updated: 2017-10-11
Packaged: 2019-01-16 03:32:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12334665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: Molly comes home to a science experiment gone messy.





	In The Name Of Science

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Chitarra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chitarra/gifts).



> Fulfilling another request for fic towards my 950th Sherlock fic! This is a platonic Mollstrade fic requested by **caramelminx** , based on a sentence prompt given to me by **Chitarra** (" _'How did you even get watermelon splattered on all four walls AND the ceiling?"'_ ).

It wasn’t often that they _needed_ a sitter for Liselle. Since she was only a little over a year younger than Rosie, thanks to the speed with which her parents got into a relationship after the evening her aunt kidnapped Sherlock and the others, John would usually say he could handle his two favourite girls and there was not really a problem. But this weekend Sherlock and John had a case out in the moors, much to their irritation, and she wasn’t expecting to have to fill in for a colleague who had a sudden bout of food poisoning.

And, to further compound the awful timing of the situation, Mrs. Hudson was visiting her sister up north.

So Molly turned to one of the other people she trusted, and Greg Lestrade said he’d be happy to watch both the girls, just give him a bit to get over to Baker Street.

Now, Molly knew that Liselle and Rosie _adored_ Greg as much as they did everyone else in the extended family, but she had an extensive talk with them before his arrival to let them know in no uncertain terms that they were not to get up to their usual tricks, and by that she meant wrap Greg around their little fingers to get what they wanted. Uncle Greg knew how to have fun, yes, but don’t take it too far was the message she wanted to impress upon them.

So she had hoped that she would walk back into Baker Street to find it calm. Peaceful. Maybe with the girls taking a nap in front of the telly on the floor with Greg on the sofa.

What she did _not_ expect was to walk into the flat and see the kitchen and part of the dining area resembling the aftermath of a Gallagher show.

She could see they had been trying to clean up the splattered watermelon, but there were red splotches of fruit all over the walls and the ceiling. The girls wore the aprons that Sherlock had gotten them when they wanted to do their own science experiments, and Rosie had goggle perched on the top of her head while Liselle was wearing hers on her face. Greg, on the other hand, was on a step stool with her blue checked apron covering his suit, reaching up to try and clean the ceiling.

She set her handbag on the coffee table and then crossed her arms. "How did you even get watermelon splattered on all four walls _and_ the ceiling?" she asked, startling all three other occupants of the flat, who hadn’t noticed she had arrived since they had been busy trying to hide the mess.

“Science!” Rosie chirped, looking over at Molly with a wide smile. “Uncle Greg was letting us study...um...” She frowned. 

“Splatter patterns!” Liselle said, filling in the sentence.

Greg gave her a sheepish look. “They asked about cases. I mentioned one...no gory details, I swear...and told them that Sherlock had solved it by smashing watermelons. They wanted to try. I didn’t think it would make this big of a mess, I’m sorry.”

“How many watermelons did you smash?” Molly asked, uncrossing her arms. Both girls were science buffs, just like her husband. She should have expected something like this, really.

“Three,” Rosie said. One each. It was Uncle Greg’s that splattered the ceiling.”

“Did you take a sledgehammer t them?” Molly asked.

“Nope! Uncle John’s cricket bat,” Liselle said.

Molly shook her head, a faint smile creeping onto her face. “Well, your fathers will be home in three hours so you have that long to clean up the mess and gather your scientific results to share with them,” Molly said. “And while you do that, I’ll order takeaway for myself. Have any of you eaten, or were you too busy with science?”

“I let them get carried away with the science,” Greg said. “But I’ll treat if you order for all of us.”

“I can live with that,” Molly said, her smile wider. She made her way to the stack of menus as cleaning commenced behind her. At least the flat was still in one piece. She could live with the mess as long as she had a home to come back to.


End file.
